Slipping Away
by Riveting Red Pants
Summary: The Doctor saved Donna from her memories, but did he forget her subconscious? Will he be in time to save the most important woman in the universe?


I realized I hadn't done any Doctor Who fanfiction, and I went Donna Noble crazy. (Okay, really bad pun considering the content of this fic) Well, enjoy my loves!

_"Doctor!" She shouted, running, so much running. A blue box. The bluest blue. She loved that box. She actually loved a box. And that man. The one from her kitchen. He was there. He was so important to her, her best friend. She felt pain every time he was in danger. She felt pain . . . her head hurt so bad . . ._

Donna's eyes burst open, and she started to gasp for air putting both hands to her head.

"Donna?" Her grandfather called, bursting in her room. She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. "Another headache?" Donna nodded, unable to speak. Her grandfather pulled the curtains shut and sat down on her bed, stroking her hair back from her clammy forehead. This was only getting worse. The Doctor had erased himself from Donna's memory, but he had forgotten about her subconscious. Donna Noble was going insane. Her dreams were frying parts of her brain. Wilf had tried to contact the Doctor, on numerous occasions, but with no luck. He was running out of options.

"Donna just try not to think about the dreams . . . maybe that'll help?" He suggested, knowing that was the issue, but he couldn't tell her that. He could never tell her that.

"There was this blue box. . ." She cried now, tears spilling onto her duvet.

"Shush now sweetheart, just don't think about it, do you hear me?"

"That man . . . his name . . ."

"Donna I mean it, stop, it's only making things worse." Donna cried out in pain, hands clutching at her skull so hard she was cutting gashes into her face with her nails. "DONNA!" Wilf cried, starting to get hectic. What was he to do? Ever since Donna had started having the dreams, she moved back in with Wilf and her mom, her husband was too busy at work to deal with his sick wife, and Wilf seemed to help. But he didn't know what to do. If only the Doctor would respond to his attempts at reaching him. "Donna, please just think of something else, please, it really will help you. Do you want to watch some telly?" Donna just screamed into her pillow and clawed at her head. Wilf tried his hardest to hold her hands back from her own flesh, but Donna couldn't be stopped. Blood spilled across the white blankets. _Doctor._ Wilf prayed _Doctor please come and save her._ Wilf looked out the window, but no blue box appeared. He listened for that sound, that wonderful sound, but it was nowhere. There must be more important things to do today than rescue his granddaughter. Bigger worlds to save, masses of people that needed his help. Wilf scowled at the window. He had used his granddaughter up and then, when he was done, abandoned her. She deserved better than this.

"Grandpa. . . I think . . ." Donna said, whimpering, "I think I need to go to the hospital. Nothing we've tried is helping . . . I can't live like this any longer." Donna was shaking, her eyes big and watery. She was in so much pain. Wilf teared up and nodded, knowing the hospital wouldn't help.

"Alright sweetheart, if that's what you want."

"I don't want to be a burden . . ." Wilf hugged his granddaughter as she sat up.

"You never have been, and never will be a burden Donna. You're the most important woman in the universe." Wilf said, without thinking. Donna moaned again and put her head to her hands.

"I've heard that before . . . someone told me that . . ." Wilf realized what he had done.

"It was probably just me. Don't think about it."

"I can't just . . . turn off my brain." Wilf nodded.

"I know. Let's get you dressed and cleaned up and go." Donna conceded, trying to wipe the blood out of her auburn hair, wincing when she hit a gash.

The hospital only made things worse. They tried to get Donna to talk about her dreams; they thought maybe some emotional trauma in her past was causing her pain. They didn't understand that it was the past that was causing her pain. Donna started to get worse, only able to talk for minutes at a time before clawing at her own head. Soon the hospital had her restrained, tied to the bed so she wouldn't hurt herself any further. Wilf couldn't stand to see her like this. Her eyes were frantic, jumping around the room, as if looking for a way out, for a ray of hope that this would get better. Donna's husband finally took time off from work, and tried to come and assure her, tried to make her feel better, but it didn't work. The hospital ran scans on Donna's brain, and found it was deteriorating at great speed. One day they took Wilf, Donna's mother, and her husband into the hallway, and told them with sorrow in their eyes,

"She has months . . . if not weeks to live. I'm so sorry." Donna's mother collapsed against her father crying, and her husband proceeded to yell at the doctors.

"Now now, it's not their fault." _It's not the doctors, it's the doctor, _Wilf thought. They all decided they'd spend what little time they had left with Donna. They wanted to get her out of the hospital, but the hospital refused to release her.

"At the rate she's going, she could be a danger to herself as well as others. It's best she stay here."

"I don't want the last thing she sees to be this bloody hospital!" Donna's mother yelled.

"I'm sorry." Was all the doctors would say before walking away to attend to the next patient. The days, and soon the weeks all blurred together. Days of hospital coffee, gray rooms, waiting for the next "episode" from Donna. Soon she figured out the truth, after all, how long can you go without telling someone their life is coming to an end? She cried with her family, unable to even wipe away her own tears because her hands were restrained. One night, Wilf insisted that Donna's husband take her mother home to rest. She'd been in this hospital too long, Donna would want her to rest. They agreed to go, only for the night, and Wilf stayed behind to watch over his little girl. He watched her sleeping form, how her cheeks had gotten so hallow, her wrists thin and bruised from the restraints. She had scars all over the sides of her face and in her hair from scraping her own skin off. Most nights she slept thrashing around, screaming. But tonight was still. Wilf looked outside at the peaceful night. It was almost Christmas. It snowed outside, a soft fluttering snow that spoke of warm nights by the fire singing Christmas carols. This was not a Christmas carol. The whole world seemed blue, cold, and lonely. Donna was to leave his life shortly. He looked back to his granddaughter and begun to cry. How would he live without her? He hadn't done much in his life to be proud of, but Donna, Donna was right. She was perfect, his world.

The sound of engines reached his ears and Wilf's head snapped up. He knew that sound. Footsteps on the linoleum floor echoed, coming towards them. And then he stood in the doorway, a different man, but the same man. His forehead was broader, his face longer, his hair even more so floppy. He wore suspenders and a bow tie. Gone were the suits and converse, the glasses and the teeth clucking. But this was the same man. He looked upon Donna with saddened eyes.

"You're here! It's you, isn't it? You can save her!" Wilf cried, standing up from his chair. The man before him gave a sad smile.

"It is me, but I'm afraid . . ."

"Oh no. Don't you do that. Don't start off a sentence like that, not tonight." The doctor shook his head, his eyebrows raising and creasing that enormous forehead of his.

"I can't save her. She's too far gone. I'm too late." Wilf crumpled back into his chair, placing his head in his hands and sobbing. This was it then; Donna was really going to die. His only hope couldn't save her. "I'm so so sorry. . ." the doctor took a few steps and stood by Donna's side, opposite the old man, and took out his screwdriver (it glowed green now instead of blue) and burned through the restraints. He picked up one of her small, cold hands and held it in two of his own. Wilf looked up and glared through his tears.

"This is your fault."

"I know." The man said, looking over Donna's hallowed out face.

"You're supposed to argue with me, and let me tell you why."

"I know it's my fault Wilf. I should've been here sooner. I shouldn't have taken her with me in the first place. I should've let her be. She is the most important woman in the universe . . . and I've caused her death." His voice began to waver, tears forming in his eyes. Donna blinked slowly and looked up.

"Who . . . Who are you?" She asked, knowing the man but not the face. The doctor looked to Wilf for permission, and Wilf nodded. Looking back, he supposed he should've asked the doctor to wait. Wait for the rest of Donna's family to come back, to say goodbye. But right then in that moment, he felt it was only the right thing to do. Donna would be so much happier once she knew, once she was let out of the prison cell she was in. Wilf scooted forward, and took her other hand which the doctor unrestrained as well.

"Donna, the dreams you've been having are memories, not dreams."

"What? Who are you?"

"I'm the doctor."

"Doctor who? I don't remember you . . ."

"No you don't, but you will."

"Okay . . . You're starting to freak me out." The doctor leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers, she struggled at first, but then her whole body relaxed as he transferred the memories back into her mind. She was still, at peace as everything she would be doomed to remember flooded back into existence. The doctor had tears streaming down his face by the time he was done. He backed up, Donna's face was screwed up in pain, but she held on.

"So then . . ." She said, gasping from the pain. "You're the doctor. You're my best friend." The doctor nodded. "And I saved you, and that's why I'm dying?" She asked, tears running down her face as well.

"You saved the universe Donna Noble." Donna screamed out in pain.

"But you're alright? You're going to be alright?" She asked. The doctor nodded.

"Thanks to you."

"It's okay then. This . . . this is okay. You need to go and save people. You need to stay alive. You're the most important man in the universe." The doctor shook his head.

"Oh no Donna, no I'm not. But you are the most important woman." Donna cried out again, and the doctor stepped forward and kissed her forehead. "Goodbye Donna Noble. My friend, my savior. I love you." Donna lay her head down on the pillow and nodded softly.

"I love you too doctor, you take care of yourself." He put a hand to his forehead, practically sobbing now. Donna looked over at her grandfather.

"Thank you granddad. Thank you for everything. I love you. Tell everyone else I love them too." Wilf nodded.

"We love you kiddo. You are so loved, you always will be." Donna's eyes drifted shut, a small smile playing out on her lips. She died remembering all the good times she had had with her best friend, all the memories that had doomed her. She died knowing that in the end, she was important; she had made some impact on the world. She wasn't Donna Noble the temp; she was Donna Noble, savior of the universe, and best friend of the doctor. And if that meant she had to die, that was okay.


End file.
